Characters are Everywhere!
Anywhere I go, I see unique people. Unique in how they dress, how they talk, and how they act. Potential characters are everywhere, just waiting to be used in a story. I recently read “Getting Into Character” by Brandilyn Collins, and have been opening my eyes to certain things people do, or as Brandilyn calls them, “mannerisms”. The book is amazing. I highly recommend it for all writers of fiction!I was sitting in church, listening to the sermon, when I noticed an interesting man. I began to write on my sermon notes:
Sunlight filtered through the stain glass windows, like a distorted rainbow-colored checkerboard on the church floor and across the benches. In the front bench sat a man in his fifties, hunched over, looking up through his bushy eyebrows, large ears wiggling as he chewed a piece of gum. What he had left of his grey hair stuck straight up and wrinkles deformed his forehead as he concentrated on the pastor.
lol. Love that last part! I do that sort of thing every day. You start to wonder what the story is behind the woman who sits in the plaza and stares at the fountain with a cigerette hanging out her mouth. Or you stare at a homeless man sleeping in the plaza and you wonder what brought him to this point in his life?
ReplyDeleteSarah, thanks much for mentioning my book Getting Into Character. Glad you've found it helpful in your own writing.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
~ Brandilyn
Thanks for stopping by, Brandilyn! I loaned my friend my copy of your book, and she loves it, too!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book recommendation! Fiction is not my genre, but lately I'm feeling a desire to try it. I'm not sure if it's me or God so I'm just keeping it under the radar until I decipher the origin of the desire, or if I truly even have the desire to write fiction at all. It might be a passing fancy.
ReplyDeleteYou write so well, Sarah. I never cease to be amazed.